1. Field of Invention
This invention concerns a multiway valve for fluids consisting of an inlet line and a plurality of valve bodies branching off from a connector housing, with each valve body having a valve housing defining a guide cylinder with a lateral discharge outlet opening into the respective outlet line, and an axially movable valve spindle within this valve housing with a valve head engaging in a valve seat arranged in said connector housing in the closed position of the respective valve body; this invention also concerns the use of this multiway valve.
2. Summary of the Related Art
Multiway valves for viscous fluids are known. Production and processing of polymer melts or other viscous fluids usually requires that the fluid stream be divided into substreams, such as when several processing positions are connected and/or when a portion of the polymer is to be chemically modified or processed into different products. The flow division takes place by using traditional multiway valves, but these often have the disadvantage of having "dead zones" (i.e., areas where a viscous fluid flows only at a reduced rate). In these dead zones, there may be a complete interruption in flow so that some of the viscous fluid remains in the dead zones of the multiway valve. To maintain the flowability of polymer melts, high temperatures are necessary, but with a prolonged dwell time of a portion of the polymer in the dead zones, these temperatures lead to decomposition of the polymer into insoluble, crosslinked products. Even with otherwise viscous fluids, a partially prolonged dwell time usually has a negative effect on quality because it results in decomposition products being deposited in the viscous fluid, leading directly to damage to the subsequent product.
European Patent Application No. 615,006 A describes a distributor for viscous fluids, consisting of a fluid line and several valves connected to the fluid line, with each valve having a housing with a portion designed as a guide cylinder, an outlet opening into an outlet line, and a valve spindle movable in the guide cylinder between the open valve position and the closed valve position and having a valve head with a mushroom-shaped attachment. These valves have only few dead zones, however, the fluid line must be flushed continually with the fluid, which must be recycled, and is additionally stressed by this recycling.